Work in progress

Documenting the cycle of experiences, mistakes and learnings


Being an endurance athlete

Aug 12, 2017 07:05 · 218 words · 2 minutes read | endurance | running | cycling |

I am asked by my mother, “Why do you cycle so much? Planning to go to the US to meet your brother?”. She already thinks bigger than me.

Being one? Guess what, I didn’t decide to be one, one fine day. It just came to me in the form of the beautiful sport of Running. I started running because I had lost touch with any form of activity. I was in sophomore year of college, and running seemed liked the best way to start embarrassing myself lesser when on a weighing scale. It was a couple of years before I came across the idea of a long distance run. It seemed challenging enough and I went for it. There’s been no looking back ever since. But one thing that has remained constant is the challenge. The mental battles you fight during an endurance activity are way more fierce and educative than the physical ones. Those meditative sessions give you a lot of time to introspect and understand yourself better. And there is no dearth of challenges, ever. As soon as you accomplish a goal, an another one will be greeting you with a smug. I’ll leave you with this read that I really liked.

“I went from sedentary academic to 100-mile marathon runner—thanks to the science of self-control”